Very Disappointed with Wyze Video Doorbells

I’m sad to report that after several months of poor performance my Wyze Video Doorbells are still unuseable.

  1. Motion detection is unreliable so I get alerted when a tree moves but Amazon can deliver a package with no alert.
  2. Person detection is not supported in Cam + light so all I get is motion alerts.
  3. Zones do not work so 98% of my motion alerts are for trees blowing and I just ignore them anyway.
  4. The video response time has improved but is still not fast enough to see if someone is at the door before actually going to look.
  5. The cameras cannot be included in a group so are “orphans.”

I’m not sure when or if these issues will be resolved but I certainly do not recommend this product as it is. :worried:

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After a very long wait… With many experiencing all, some, or a few of these same issues, there is some promising news from the Wyze camp:

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What do your motion detection settings look like? Sensitivity, etc?

Person detection is supported in CPL, what about it isn’t working for you?

Person detection works in CPL for all my Wyze Cams but is apparently not yet supported for the Video Doorbells. They do not show up in the list of cameras I can add to CPL.

My detection sensitivity setting is not the issue, it’s that detection zones don’t work on these cameras. Both of my VD’s have trees in their field of vision that I can’t block out. If I put the sensitivity low enough to not get alerts from the trees blowing I also don’t get alerts from people delivering packages.

The Detection Zones on the VD’s seem to be ignored or are possibly in the wrong place due to the portrait rotation?

I also cannot add the VD’s to my regular camera groups.

It appears as if this product was purchased by Wyze from a 3rd party and has not been integrated with their other cameras? :worried:

This camera has been giving me motion alerts all day even though the trees are blocked in my Detection Zone settings.

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I have exactly the same problem. It detects the neighbors trees, even a slight movement, but will miss people walking up to the door. Extremely annoying.
Detection zones don’t seem to work.

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Turn on detection boxes, see if it shows the motion in the blocked area or if it’s a shadow or smth

I have detection zone turned on, and selected the blocks where I need motion detected. Doesn’t work, selecting blocks makes no difference.

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You sure you don’t have the zone backwards?

Send a screenshot

I assume you mean motion tagging? This option is not available for the Video Doorbells.

Screenshot shown above.

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Really? Sorry, I don’t have the doorbell so was just guessing :slight_smile:

I replied to the other user, saw your screenshot.

@jdwarner94 and @aetoronto, you are not alone. There are MANY topics discussing the problems with the doorbell.

I do have the VDBv1 so I am familiar with it’s capabilities, features, and problems.

You are correct, the VDBv1 does not support motion tagging.

As for detection zones: One of the problems that was introduced on the VDB when they upgraded the firmware to coincide with the integration of the VDB video into the HMS Monitoring tab Security Cam Video, was ‘aspect ratio rotation’ so that it would be resized and oriented correctly within the HMS viewer. As we all know, the VDB video is not the same aspect ratio as the V3. When they did this, they caused a momentary rotation of the VDB live feed video. You may have experienced this when you load the doorbell. It will load, flip sideways, then flip back. Additionally, it also introduced the problem with the live view not loading and locking at 3 of 3.

It has been suggested by several users and tested, but not completely confirmed, that the ‘image rotation’ update caused a rotation of the image, but not the detection zone to coincide. Therefore, some have reported the detection zone to be ‘off’ by 90° from the image. Some have suggested that if you redraw the zone rotated 90°, it may work.

This is why the detection zones for the VDB are absolutely useless. It is also why Smart AI PD will not activate unless the zones are off.

I have all my cams on CP, but I pulled a V3 and the VDB from CP to test assignment to CPL.

You are correct, the V3 does show as available for assignment to CPL but the VDB does not. This may be a bug that needs fixed as I was not aware that it isn’t compatible. @WyzeJasonJ: can you shed any light on this?

I have not received any reliable push notifications since the FW messed up the VDB. Worse, the VOIP on button push takes so long to connect that the person ringing usually walks away.

Sadly, yes.

All Wyze IoT is third-party manufactured gear licensed and rebadged for the US market.

I am waiting for the FW RC Beta to test out. Once we get reports back from that, we may see some progress to return our doorbells to working order.

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Thanks for the explanation. Makes a lot of sense. Doorbell nice, but so many issues, stupid issues. The video on the phone all the way to the top of screen, even passing the top, been like this forever, no fix. No video Uploaded during events half the times, network errors, detection zones, late notications. Hard to keep supporting them. There’s more and more bugs, all they keep doing intruding dumb subscription crap. I need a working door bell and cameras, not some half planned dumb security system.

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You will get no argument from me and your sentiment is shared by many. Unfortunately, I confess to being one of those subscribers who has all my cams on CamPlus and have the HMS Security System along with various other Smart Home IoT. I was an early adopter of the HMS and it was the only reason I started with Wyze in the first place. It was and still remains one of the best for the price…if it works. Ecosystem stability is mandatory.

@SlabSlayer

The only information I have currently is from the original release of CPL back in January.

What cameras are currently compatible with Cam Plus Lite?
Wyze Cams v1, v2, v3, Pan v1, Pan v2, and Wyze Cam Outdoor. We need a little more time to make Cam Plus Lite compatible with our video doorbells. If you only have a Wyze Video Doorbell, we will send you another communication later on when it’s ready. The cloud recording experience on doorbells will not change on February 15th, it will stay the same for now.

That CPL change happened before I was employed by Wyze and was just a moderator. I will see if I can get an update soon on where we stand on getting more cameras on board with CPL.

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@WyzeJasonJ, absolutely the exact information I was looking for. Thank you for the concise reply and the effort to see where the development is on this. Thank you! I learned something new today.

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This is a little confusing for me because I don’t use CPLite. I pay for Cam Plus. So what additional feature(s) am I supposed to be paying for that CPLite users don’t yet have, and is that feature supposed to be working trouble-free for me as a paid CamPlus user/owner? I ask this question because I am presently failing to get reports, video or stills of many visits to my doorstep, some of which have caused much aggravation and needless expense in our household having to throw away wasted food dropped off in the hot sun. I really didn’t mind paying for CP but of course I expected it to make my Wyze DoorBell work better and continue to be reliable, which is the opposite of what has happened.

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As currently implemented, these VD’s are actually worse than just unusable.

In addition to not correctly performing the basic functions for which they are intended, they instead give false motion notifications which initially require time to check but then eventually just get ignored. Since a Wyze notification is a Wyze notification, I now pretty much ignore the legitimate notifications from my 15 other Wyze Cams as well. :slightly_frowning_face:

My guess from this thread is the zones are not blocking the areas I want blocked but rather are blocking the area I don’t want blocked. I’m going to try removing these zones to see if I can a least get back legitimate motion detects in addition to all the unwanted tree motion detects. :roll_eyes:

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And that’s exactly what i did. I ended up turning off notifications for the camera. Every 5 minutes i get a ding for a leaf that moved. Yet, the delivery guy walks to the door and nothing. At Wyze, the priority became making as many pay-per-use useless services as they can. That works great when your hardware top notch and you have an apple as your logo, The cams having paid features, i get it. The doorbell, i don’t. It should do the basic thing, notify you when someone at the door.

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